As the holiday season unfolds, each Friday, we will share with you a reflection centred on the symbolism of light, closely intertwined with the core themes resonating in our work.
The initial reflection is presented by Fr. Paul Lansu, a valued member of Pax Christi International’s board, who also provides a contemplation on the significance of this special time.
May these reflections offer inspiration and illuminate your Advent season.
Advent Week 1 by Fr. Paul Lansu
Thou art the light of the world
The Peace Light from Bethlehem
Sunday 3 December 2023 marks the beginning of the Advent season. Advent is the four-
week period leading up to Christmas. It is a preparation time for the birth of Jesus, the
coming of God’s Son among men.
Advent is a time of expectation, of something new emerging, of a future. Expecting is different from waiting. To expect is to look forward to an event that gives new life. New life presents itself after a time of ‘night and darkness’. Advent is a time of awakening to new values.
Prophets clarify our existence.
In Advent, the liturgy presents us with the great visions and message of the prophet Isaiah. It
does this not to make us resigned or silence us to sleep, but to urge us to watchfulness, to
spiritual effort, to an honest, just and fraternal life. In Advent, we are invited to track God’s
mercy and his ways. To be vigilant, to live this longing consciously, to open our hearts to what everyday life offers us. The testimony of the prophet Isaiah seeks to clarify our present existence. The voice of past prophets, whose echo we hear in today’s prophets, calls us to repentance, vigilance and greater understanding.
Read the full reflection here.
Advent Week 2 by Marie Dennis
We wait in this holy season for the Light of the world, for Peace on Earth, but peace is painfully elusive around the world, including in the land of Jesus’ birth. Is it possible for the human community to imagine an end to violence and war? For Christians, whose worldview is defined by hope, the answer to these questions has to be yes. Peace is essential to the Promise; war, violence and the New Creation cannot co-exist. Nonviolence is the only way forward.
The prophets among us, the ones whose lives are given to proclaiming peace, believe that. They seem to understand at a soul-deep level that every human life is unique, precious, of utmost value in the eyes of God, and that we are part of a community of life that is a beautiful and gratuitous gift from the Creator. They profess that we human beings are subjects of a future in which life can be protected, not victims of a future over which we have no control. We can decide, individually and collectively, to be nonviolent.
That is the glimmer of light that nonviolence offers. (…)
Read the full reflection here.
Advent Week 3 by Elizabeth Kanini Kimau
Lighting a Candle of Hope
In the third Sunday of Advent, we are invited to rejoice, to celebrate and be happy because the long-awaited Messiah, the Saviour, the God with us is about to arrive into the world. The colours of this Sunday pink, symbolises joy. This Sunday is also referred to as Gaudete Sunday which means rejoice.
(…)
The message of Joy, hope and Happiness of this Sunday left me confused and generated several questions in my mind. The first was the relevance of the Gaudete Sunday to the people I have been working and living with.
For the last fourteen years, I have been working and living in areas affected by prolonged armed violence. I encountered people who have been born, lived and now aging in war. In these regions the Ubuntu spirit has faded away, many people perceive each other as enemies but not a human being. I interacted with children whose big dream is to grow up and go to kill the enemy and bring back their livestock which were stolen many years ago.
(…)
What is the meaning of Gaudete Sunday to these traumatised and hopeless populations?
How does hope look like in midst of these prolonged wars? Divided societies, broken families, deep hatred and quench to revenge?
How do people rejoice when the Spirit of Ubuntu which united societies as one family is fading away?
What can give these children born in war a reason to celebrate and rejoice?
What are the signs or indicators of hope and Joy in midst of this darkness?
There is a Chinese proverb which says, “It’s better to light a candle rather than cursing the darkness”. My fourteen experiences in war environment taught me that living in peaceful environment for those who have not known peace is possible. In deep darkness of war, I went among the pastoralists who were caught in cycles of violence to light a candle of hope in midlist this of deep darkness.
Fourteen years later I cannot lament forever. I notice signs of joy and hope for a better future.
Morans (Young men known as warriors) who are key perpetrators to the violence transforming and becoming peacebuilders
Morans putting down their guns and going to school instead of depending only on livestock which triggers the violence through raids and revenge missions.
Children with changed dreams of becoming teachers, doctors, lawyers, children who have found joy in education.
Young generation born in war have treasured the values of peace and have devoted their lives to build a better peaceful communities.
There is a joy when people in midst of sufferings are able to forgive and collaborate together in development initiatives.
Read the full reflection here.
Advent Week 4 by Martha Inés Romero
Reflexión en español disponible aquí. Réflexion en français disponible ici.
Fire in Latin America’s Indigenous Ancestry
The Second Vatican Council and the Conference of Bishops of Medellín (1968) signified for the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean the affirmation of a process of evangelical commitment in favor of justice and the poor, promoting social awareness and recognition of the socio-cultural, religious and theological diversity of peoples.
Recognizing the knowledge, customs, and traditions of the different indigenous peoples of Abya Yala has not been an easy task for the Catholic Church in the region for the past 400 years. However, such is the spiritual richness of the peoples, that they managed to resist, and it is now Pope Francis himself who recognizes Indigenous Theology or Amerindian Theology, although the challenge still continues among those who insist on a clerical and sacramental Church, as opposed to an ecclesial, synodal, inclusive Church.
Indigenous or Amerindian theologies touch the deep root of the worldview of the original peoples – Mesoamerican, Andean, Amazonian and southern Patagonian. It resists and is a collective path that prays and acclaims in its connection with the Pacha Mama, Mother Earth, who sows in the soil, but also in the water, in the mountains, in the fire that illuminates the celebrations. It is a transformative theology that a visionary pastor like jTatik Samuel Ruiz, Bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, promoted from six pillars: autochthonous, liberating, evangelizing, servant, in communion with God and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, it does not clash with the Catholic faith but roots it in indigenous spirituality.
In the Mayan Altar there is harmony with all creation, integrality; there is time and space, divinity and humanity, man and woman, heaven and earth, seeds, air and light, as complements of life. And it is this light, that of the creative fire, the fire of life, present in all the peoples of Abya Yala who, in a contemplative attitude, honor the sacredness of Creation, in which human beings are one more…
Everything is inhabited!!
Indigenous theologies represent an integral theology, which harmonizes the relationship that believers have with God, but also harmonizes the relationships between fellow human beings, and their relationship with Mother Earth. And this same spirituality, which integrally manifests itself, is what animates from hope, struggles and resistances for the defense of the land in the face of megaprojects, mainly by mining. That is why it is liberating, because it frees us from sins and from any superficial bondage, in order to reach the Good Living.